11.16.03 Triceradon and Striker These guys are both back in stores in one form or another so I figured I'd repost it. Also I was too lazy to finish the Halo review. Triceradon Beast Mode A pretty good Triceratops. The color is kind of a dark brownish red with a green stripe down his back. For some reason the stripe ends where the tail piece comes out. It would have been nice if the would have continued it all the way down. There is also orange-yellow on the claws, horns and tips of the frill. It's not all that posable really, but then Triceratops aren't real nimble creatures (as far as we know anyway). Mine seems to hand some sort of defect also since it only seems to be able to stand on three feet at any one time. Plus the panels on it's body seem a bit loose. Corpse mode When you push the front horn the tongue sticks out a bit more and the eyes roll back. Then you can open a panel on the side to reveal some bloody ribs. Now lie him on his side for a Corpse mode. Moderately unconvincing overall. Mostly because the legs just sort of stick out. Transformation Fold the robot legs out from the Beast rear legs, fold the spike things out from the front legs, and side panels and fold the side halves down off to the side. I recommend pulling the tail gun out so it keeps out of the way. Pull the Dino head out, lift open the back, rotate the upper robot body 90 degrees, move the tail piece up, and close the panels over the tail. Lastly fold the robot hips together. It's really rather complicated. and yes, the beast back just hangs there off the robot's left shoulder. Robot mode There isn't really that much beast kibble, it's more that what there is, is large and obtrusive. The one hand is the Trike head, so it juts sort of hangs there. I recommend keeping the eyes rolled back so it looks less creepy. The other arm is severely limited by the beast back hanging off it, its hard to get him to hold his weapon. The coloring is mostly the same dark brown plus orange for the middle body area. There are bits of light blue showing through, and some details on the chest as well. He's about as wide as he is tall as well, and he's kind of short. Overall Moderately recommended. It's a pretty nice original mold, but the robot mode has some large kibble problems. He's kind of cool looking though, which is his major plus. 6/10. Striker Beast Mode Except for some odd colors he's pretty good in this mode. The front legs are pretty posable, the rear legs are somewhat posable. The rest of the beast is not really posable at all. The colors are gold for the Stegosaurus hide. Th back things, which I forget the name of for some reason now, are red, and there are some yellow and orange stripes on the back as well. There are some odd light blue parts on this mode from the robot mode. Pretty nice looking really. The colors are weird, but they go pretty good together. Flower Mode Unhook the tail and stand it straight up on the spine. Position the Stego back spikes to make stem leaves, and open the tail up. It's supposed to stay open, and I could get it to stay open when it was new but I have had trouble getting it to stay recently. Also this mode is helped if you spread out the legs and lie the body flat. Not too convincing really, maybe if it were sitting in some grass or something. It looks like a stego with a flower growing out of it sitting on my flat desk. Transformation Pull up the tail like you would for flower mode. Pull the robot skis from the rear legs and attach them to the feet. Fold down the cod piece and open the side panels and fold them down to the sides of the robot legs. Split the rest of the body, fold the arm pieces around and attach them, and rotate the halves of the beast hide around 180 degrees on their joints. this require a bit of manipulation of the joint. Finally, rotate the robot torso on its joint, slide it in, and fold the robo head around, then rotate the robot head 180 degrees and hang the frills off the back. Also remove the tail weapon. Oh right, and also open up the robot hands. Robot Mode While he can hold his tail as a weapon, it severely sets him off balance. I found he looks pretty cool with a spear weapon (one from and Evangelion model for me specifically), as a spear just seems like it would be his weapon of choice. His coloring is almost completely different in this mode. He still has the gold color on his legs and hanging off pieces, but the rest of his body is colored two different shades of light blue with orange detailing. He has a real Incan warrior motif going. Also the little kibble there is only adds to the look to make him look cooler. The skull on his chest covers his spark crystal up in this mode. The only real complaint is the legs seems a bit stiff, but more because he is kind of oddly balanced. Overall If you only get one Dinobot I'd have to say make it this one. Heck get this guy anyway I'd say. It's good in both modes and there are no real big problems with it. I'd give it an 9 out of 10.